Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that Harry Potter belongs to the amazing JK Rowling and that I am most definitely up to no good.
A/N: Sorry for the long delay guys! I hope to get back to normal postings going forward, especially with NaNoWriMo going on :D. Thanks for the awesome reviews, you guys are the best.
Previous Chapter Summary: Harry celebrates his 11th birthday and gets to meet the Weasleys, the Lovegoods, and the Diggorys. He also finds his familiar, Hedwig, while buying his school supplies in Diagon Alley before meeting Neville Longbottom along with his intimidating grandmother. Nick and Nell confront Dumbledore about Voldemort and they manage to remove the jinx that has been plaguing the DADA position for the last 20 odd years before learning about the prophecy about Harry and the Dark Lord.
This was it. It was finally here. The day he had been waiting for all summer. The day that he simultaneously anticipated and feared. This was the day that Harry Potter would board the Hogwarts Express that would take him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he would begin his magical education.
Harry breathed in a nervously excited breath and let it out slowly. This summer had been a whirlwind of emotions and shocking revelations for the 11 year old and he felt that without Nicolas and Perenelle's love and care, he would have gone insane with everything he had been bombarded with.
From learning that magic existed, finding out how his parents had really died, experiencing the pain of having a soul piece removed from behind his scar, and ending with discovering that there was a prophecy about him and the psychopath that had killed his parents. Yes, he very much doubted he would have made it through the last few months with his sanity in tact were it not for the wonderful people that were now his guardians.
"Are you ready Harry?" Nicolas asked enthusiastically as he came to stand next to him.
Harry looked up at him with a big smile. "Yes." He said simply.
Perenelle came to stand next to him as well, fiddling with the enchanted watch on her wrist that she had received from Harry for her birthday just a few days before. He had had a mini panic attack when he found out that Perenelle's birthday was coming up, having never been able to get anybody a present before, but Nicolas managed to calm him down and took him to Diagon Alley, where he helped Harry pick out her present.
The watch actually looked very much like a silver bracelet but what made it unique were the 12 lotus flowers that surrounded it. They each had 12 petals and one petal would open for every five minutes that passed, blooming fully at the top of the hour and starting on the next flower when the new hour began. From midnight to noon the flowers were a pinkish red to signify the AM hours and turned a bluish purple from noon to midnight for PM.
"You have everything right?" She asked him.
He looked down at his new book bag and opened it to make sure that his shrunken trunk as well as the lunch and assorted snacks that Nicolas had made him for the journey were safely packed within. His wand was in the wand holster attached to his right arm that Perenelle had bought him when they had gone to pick up his wand from Ollivander's, his ever present camera was also slung across his shoulder, and everything else he needed for school was currently in the shrunken trunk.
"Yes" He said again and Hedwig came over to perch on his shoulder, sending a flash of anticipation through their bond. Instead of flying to Hogwarts ahead of him she had made it quite clear that she would be accompanying Harry on the train and then ensured that he knew just how she felt about being put in her cage when he suggested it by screeching angrily right into his ear.
"Very good. We should get going." Nicolas said and looked at his watch. "It's almost 10:30 and we want to get there before all the compartments start getting taken up."
Harry reached up and grabbed each of their hands, took another deep breath, and readied himself for the uncomfortable apparition ride.
When he was finally grounded and didn't feel like his stomach was about to rebel all over the pavement, Harry opened his eyes and saw before him a magnificent scarlet steam engine set next to a large platform bustling with people and animals.
As Hedwig gave a disgruntled huff, Nicolas and Perenelle ushered Harry forward, startling him out of his trance, so they weren't blocking the apparition point.
"You said that you were going to meet Neville here right?" Perenelle asked.
"Yeah, he said he and his Gran would be here about 30 or 40 minutes before the train leaves." Harry replied and stood up on his tip toes to try and locate them. He and Neville had visited each other a few times the last month of summer and had become fast friends, even writing to each other when they weren't able to visit.
Harry had also visited the Weasley's once when he was invited to Ginny's birthday on August 11th. Perenelle had decided to go get her present since Harry had no idea what a 10 year old girl would want and, remembering Harry telling her that Ginny thought she would like the Chaser position best because that's where all the action was, ended up getting her a Quaffle that was enchanted to mimic being thrown by other Chasers so that she could play by herself while her brothers were away at Hogwarts.
Luna had been invited to the party as well and, though he felt uncomfortable asking girls over to play, he did promise to write both her and Ginny every once in a while because he thought they were nice and felt a little bad knowing that they would be by themselves for a whole year since they didn't start at Hogwarts until next year.
"Oh, I see them." Perenelle announced and began dragging both Harry and Nicolas through the large crowd.
"Harry!" Neville said excitedly as he saw them walk up.
Greetings were made all around before Nicolas looked down at the two boys. "Why don't you both go and find yourselves a compartment and then come back out so we can chat for a bit before you have to go."
They nodded and Harry helped Neville get his trunk up into a carriage towards the end of the train that had two girls in one of the compartments that Neville said he knew.
"How did Sage fair with the journey?" Harry asked him as Neville drug his trunk down the aisle and Harry carried a large cat carrier for him. They had all been visiting Longbottom Hall when Nicolas had overheard Neville's Uncle Algie mention that he was going to get his nephew a toad for being accepted into Hogwarts and quickly intervened on the young boy's behalf, managing to convince him to get Neville a cat instead.
Harry had been with Neville when he went to pick out his cat and was surprised to see him almost immediately zone in on an already very large Maine Coon kitten that would probably grow to be about the same size as Alcmene. Sage was black with bright golden eyes and he fit Neville perfectly, as he seemed to be very laid back and enjoyed sunbathing in the greenhouses while his owner puttered around taking care of his plants.
"He didn't like Apparating too much. Started hissing and spitting like mad once we arrived and I had just gotten him settled down when you guys showed up." Neville replied, stopping before one of the doors and knocking lightly.
It didn't take but a few moments for the door to slide open, revealing a small blonde haired girl with pigtails. "Oh hi Neville." She said once she got a good look at him.
"H…Hello Hannah." He stuttered out. "Do you mind if we sit with you?"
Hannah turned to her compartment mate and when the young red head nodded, she faced them again. "Come on in."
"Thanks." He said and drug his trunk inside.
Harry set the cat carrier down as Hedwig flew off his shoulder to perch on the back of one of the seats and he helped Neville pick up his trunk to put it up into one of the racks. When they were done Harry looked at the two girls, who were sitting next to each other while watching him with mild curiosity, and waved at them both, "Hello, my name is Harry Potter." And resisted the urge to roll his eyes as they gasped and began searching his forehead for his scar, which had faded quite a bit since the soul piece was removed.
When neither of them seemed like they were going to introduce themselves, Neville cleared his throat pointedly and spoke. "Harry, this is Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones."
The girls blushed and muttered apologies before Hannah spoke up again. "Sorry about that Harry, we knew you would be going to Hogwarts this year but it's still kind of a shock to just meet you out of the blue like that."
"It's all right, Nick and Nell warned me that the staring and stuff would get worse once I went to school since they wouldn't be able to shield me from it but its going to take some getting used to I suppose." He gave them a smile to let them know it really was ok.
"Nick and Nell?" Hannah asked.
"Yeah, my guardians… who are waiting for us out on the platform. We can talk more when we get back if you'd like but we should probably get out there." He replied as he began lightly pushing Neville out the door, wanting to make sure he got to say bye to both of them. He looked to his familiar before he left. "You staying here Hedwig?"
She bobbed up and down a bit then settled in.
Harry nodded and followed Neville back out onto the platform, through the much larger crowd, and back to both of their guardians.
"There you are. What took you so long?" Perenelle asked
"We were just saying hi to a few friends of Neville's that we are going to share a compartment with." Harry said.
They smiled down at him and Nicolas spoke up. "Well we're glad you are meeting more people already. Now, we will see you at the feast tonight but we probably won't get a chance to speak with you until tomorrow morning at the earliest ok?" He waited for Harry's nod before continuing. "Tomorrow after dinner we can show you where our quarters will be so you know where it's at and can come and visit us every once in a while."
"Are we still going to do dinner with just the three of us on Sundays?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Of course sweetheart, there may be occasions where both of us might not be able to be there or we may have to cancel but we will make sure to try and all have dinner together at least once a week." Perenelle said and reached into her purse, pulling out her own camera. "Now, I want some pictures of your first day before you leave."
The next few minutes were spent taking pictures and just as Perenelle snapped the last one of Harry and Neville with their arms around each others shoulders with the Hogwarts Express in the background, a whistle sounded loudly throughout the platform.
"Oh, you had best get going." Perenelle said, pulling Harry into a tight hug and kissing the top of his head.
When she let him go, Nicolas pulled him into a similar hug. "Have fun on the train and make plenty of new friends."
"I'll try." Harry replied and said goodbye to Mrs. Longbottom, as Neville did the same to the Flamels, before giving them a last wave and running to get back onto the train.
When they arrived at the compartment they noticed that they had been joined by another girl who had bushy brown hair and seemed to be talking a mile a minute from what Harry could see from the window in the door. She stopped in mid sentence when he slid the door open and stepped inside. "Hello." He said as he went to sit in the seat that Hedwig had claimed, near the window on the same side of the compartment as her, which had a small table that he placed his book bag on.
Neville managed a murmured greeting as he sat down across from Harry and right next to Susan before bending down to let Sage out of his carrier. Harry had noticed that while Neville spoke to him and people he already knew just fine, as soon as he met someone new he became super shy.
"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger." The bushy haired girl rushed out.
When it looked like Neville wasn't going to handle the introductions this time, Harry spoke up. "Nice to meet you. I'm Harry Potter and this is Neville Longbottom."
Hermione's eyes widened slightly. "Are you really? Oh, I've read all about you…" but she cut herself off as Harry let out a low groan. "What?"
Harry looked at her. "Sorry Hermione, that wasn't directed towards you personally. I just hate my fame and all the stares and whispering that go along with it."
Hermione huffed. "But Harry, you defeated a dark lord when you were just a baby, of course you would be famous."
"I was nearly killed when I was just a baby and I'm only famous because I somehow survived. Personally, I think my parents deserve all the credit but since they are gone, people tend to just ignore them and focus on me." Harry shrugged and Hedwig, sensing her familiar's mood, jumped down onto his shoulder and nuzzled his cheek before jumping onto the table in front of him.
Harry smiled down at her as she sent flashes of love through their bond. "Everyone, this is Hedwig. She is my true familiar." He said.
"Is she really Harry? True familiars are quite rare." Hannah spoke up, looking between him and Hedwig.
"Yeah, I found her in the Owl Emporium when we were walking through Diagon Alley. I felt the bond and immediately went straight for her in the shop."
"What's a true familiar? I haven't read about those." Hermione asked, intrigued.
Harry proceeded to tell her what Nicolas had told him then what he had read about them in one of the books from the Flamel library. According to Your Familiar and You, a witch or wizard could have multiple true familiars and they could be either magical or non-magical creatures. It was rumored that Merlin had had a Dragon true familiar, while the Hogwarts Founders each had a non-magical one. Rowena Ravenclaw was bonded to an eagle, Helga Hufflepuff to a badger, Godric Gryffindor to a lion, and Salazar Slytherin to a snake and those familiars were each such an integral part of the Founder's lives that they were made into the mascots for each house.
"So you and Hedwig can feel each others emotions?" Hermione enquired.
Harry nodded and stroked Hedwig's stomach. "She knows how I feel about my fame and everything so she was just helping me feel better."
"Oh." Hermione said in a small voice. "I'm sorry I upset you Harry. You were right, I didn't give much thought to everything else that might have happened that night."
"It's ok Hermione." He gave her a smile. "Just like I was telling Susan and Hannah earlier, I'll just have to try and get used to it all and will try extra hard not to bite anyone's head off."
Everybody laughed at that and the tension was broken.
"So you said that Nick and Nell were your guardians. Are they who you have been living with all this time?" Hannah asked into the comfortable silence that had descended.
"Their full names are Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel and they will be teaching at Hogwarts starting this year. I only met them for the first time in July though and they adopted me the day after. Before that I lived with my relatives."
"What happened to your relatives?" Hermione asked.
Harry shifted uncomfortably. "They hated magic and they weren't very nice to me because of it."
Nicolas and Perenelle had managed to get him to open up more about what had happened at the Dursley's growing up and after confiding in them he did feel better about everything, even managing to tell Neville a bit when he had asked, but he still didn't like talking about it to complete strangers.
When Miss Poole from Children's Welfare came by for her monthly visit in August she had updated them on what had happened with the Dursleys. After the court hearing, his Aunt Petunia was sentenced to probation with the possibility of jail time should she violate any of the conditions laid down for the probation. One of the conditions was that Dudley could continue living with her only if he met with a child psychologist on a weekly basis to try and curtail the bad behavior he had developed thanks to his parents.
Uncle Vernon however, was sentenced to a year in prison for punching one of the Squib policeman who had accompanied the Aurors and Squibs from the non-magical children's welfare to investigate the case. Once the year was up, if he had exhibited good behavior, he would be allowed to go home under probation as well but with stricter conditions than Aunt Petunia.
Neville managed to pluck up his courage and intercede before one of the girls could possibly ask Harry to elaborate further, knowing how much his friend disliked talking about his relatives, and said. "Nick and Nell are really amazing though. Harry just told me the other day that they are over 600 years old."
As expected, the girls were stunned and suitably distracted by this new piece of information.
"How is that even possible?" Hermione enquired with a look that said quite clearly that she didn't believe him.
Harry gave Neville a grateful look before he turned to answer Hermione's question. "Nick is an Alchemist and he created the Philosopher's Stone, with Nell's help, back in the 1300s. The Stone produces the Elixir of Life, which makes them immortal for as long as they continue to drink it."
"Wow, that's incredible." Susan spoke up for the first time.
"Will Mr. Flamel be teaching Alchemy?" Hermione asked enthusiastically.
"Yeah, but you won't be able to take it until 6th year. If you are interested in it, I do know that you will have to make good grades in Transfiguration and Potions for you to be eligible to take the class."
The next hour or so was spent talking about the various classes that each of them were looking forward to, which house they thought they would be sorted into, and a brief conversation about Quidditch, which was abandoned quickly when it was realized that only Harry was really interested in the sport.
Just as noon rolled around and Harry was in the process of pulling out some non-magical playing cards from his bag for them to play with, their compartment door slid open to reveal a kind looking old woman pushing a cart full of assorted sweets and other snacks. "Anything off the trolly dears?"
While Susan, Hannah, and Neville all bought something, Harry and Hermione both declined as they pulled out their own lunches. Even though it had been several weeks since he was taken off of his potion regimen, Harry was still immensely grateful that he no longer had to take the vial things, despite the benefits they had given him.
When Perenelle had taken him in for his check-up, Healer Manning informed them that he was fit as a fiddle and that he would continue to grow as a normal boy should from now on. Harry had actually grown about 3 or 4 inches and put on 8 or so pounds in the month that he had taken the potions and was glad that he was no longer so small and scrawny.
"Does anybody want some biscuits?" He asked as he set a large box of chocolate chip biscuits on the table and opened it.
"Oh, you guys gotta try these." Neville said and reached in to grab some. "Nick is an amazing cook and bakes the best biscuits I have ever tasted."
At that statement, all three girls took a cookie and though Hermione muttered profusely about sugar and cavities as she ate it, they all ended up eating at least 3 each after they tried their first.
"So Harry." Hannah began and Harry looked up at her as he fed Hedwig some of his pasty. "If Mr. and Mrs. Flamel are so old, does that mean that they have a lot of family running around everywhere?"
"Not really." He replied gloomily. "Despite giving them eternal life, one of the actual downsides of the Elixir of Life is that Nell isn't able to have children. When they realized this and after a few long discussions, they decided that they would adopt Squib children that were abandoned by their magical families when it was discovered they weren't able to do magic, and raise them."
"That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed.
"It is," Harry agreed whole heartedly, "but it happens a lot apparently. Most witches and wizards are just too embarrassed to admit that they had a Squib child and don't want to have anything to do with them once they realize it, even thought it's clearly not the child's fault.
"Anyway, because it's so difficult for Squibs to integrate themselves and be accepted into magical society, whenever the children they adopted grew up they would go into the non-magical world and eventually Nick and Nell would lose touch with them as they started their own families that didn't know anything about magic. They said that that is the hardest part for them, knowing their grandchildren are out there but not being able to meet and speak with them, but that giving those children a chance to grow up happy made up for it."
"Well that's really nice of them." Susan said. "But also really sad."
Harry had thought so too when Nicolas had told him about it. He decided not to tell the others that the last child the Flamels had adopted in 1936 had been a baby they named Julia Rose Flamel, who had died from a severe case of pneumonia when she was 8. Perenelle had been heartbroken and they had immediately left New Zealand to come back to Britain since the former held too many bad memories for them to want to stay there. After 30 years had passed and Perenelle had still not gotten over losing Julia, the Flamels sat down to discuss possibly destroying the stone and finally passing on. Before they could reach a decision however, Perenelle met his mum and the discussion was put on hold for a few years, then dismissed entirely when Harry had come along and Perenelle seemed to be coming back to herself.
As Hermione opened her mouth to say something, the compartment door slid open once more, this time by a boy their age with two larger boys standing behind and on either side of him. "Any of you seen Harry Potter?" He asked haughtily after looking around at them in mild disdain.
All eyes turned to Harry and the blond haired boy zeroed in on him and stepped into the compartment. "So it's you then?
"Yes, I'm Harry Potter." Harry said simply. He wasn't sure he was going to like this boy very much but didn't want to be rude.
"My name is Draco Malfoy and this is Crabbe and Goyle." He said, waving negligently behind him at the burly brutes still standing in the doorway, then extending his hand to shake.
Harry shook it and went ahead and introduced everyone else.
Malfoy looked down his nose at Hermione when Harry said her name and asked rudely. "Are you a muggle-born?"
Hermione looked warily up at him. "Yes."
"You really shouldn't be hanging around with riffraff like her and that Squib, Potter." He said, pointing at Neville.
"That's not very nice Malfoy, Neville wouldn't have been accepted at Hogwarts if he couldn't do magic and you don't even know Hermione." Harry said angrily as Hedwig let out a shriek aimed towards the pale boy and flew over to sit on Hermione's shoulder to play with her hair since the bushy haired girl looked upset at Malfoy's dig.
Malfoy jumped back in surprise as Hedwig clipped him around the head with one of her wings on her way over to Hermione and would have tripped and fallen over his own feet if Neville hadn't grabbed him quickly and righted him.
"Don't touch me Squib!" He yelled angrily and yanked his arm out of the other boys grasp.
"Malfoy, if you're going to be rude to everyone then please leave, we just want to enjoy the train ride." Harry tried but knew that his request would most likely be ignored.
Malfoy gave them a sneer. "But we don't want to leave, you seem to have some sweets left and we already ate all of ours."
Just as he reached out to grab hold of Harry's box of biscuits a voice was heard from right behind Crabbe and Goyle. "What's going on in here?"
They jumped in surprise and everybody turned to see Cedric standing behind them.
Harry let out a small sigh of relief at the older boys good timing and Malfoy muttered profusely as he gave them all a dark look and stormed out of the compartment with his bookends in tow.
"Hey Cedric." Harry said with a wide grin. "You came at just the right time I think."
"Well I'm glad I did, it sounded like things could have turned pretty nasty. Mind if I sit?" He asked Hermione, who turned beet red but shook her head and he sat down next to her.
"You want some biscuits?" Harry offered, holding out the box.
"Thanks." He replied and took a few. "Looks like you've made some new friends."
"Oh yeah, sorry." Harry said and introduced everyone again. "And this is Cedric Diggory, he is a third year Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff?" Hannah squeaked and also turned red when Cedric looked at her.
He gave her a smile and nodded. "You hoping to get into Hufflepuff?"
Hannah cleared her throat nervously. "Yes, that's where Susan and I would like to go."
"Well, then I'll be rooting for you at the sorting."
"How are we sorted?" Harry asked as innocently as he could. Nicolas and Perenelle had refused to tell him, saying it was part of tradition for the method to be secret from the new first years.
Cedric gave a chuckle. "Nice try Harry but I'm not telling. I can promise you that it isn't anything bad so don't worry too much about it alright."
Harry gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment, making everybody laugh, and held up the playing cards he had brought out earlier. "Want to play with us?"
"Sorry, but I told my friends I wouldn't be too long and should be getting back." The older boy said and stood up. "I just wanted to check in on you to see how you were doing."
"Ok, thanks for coming by." Harry said and gave a small wave.
Everybody else in the compartment followed his lead and waved goodbye as Cedric gave them a nod and left.
All of the girls had large smiles on their faces and they each gave a sigh as the compartment door slid closed once again.
"He is so cu…" Hannah began but stopped herself, looked hurriedly at Harry and Neville, and coughed embarrassedly. "So nice." She finished in a small voice.
"Yeah." Both Hermione and Susan said dreamily.
Both boys looked at each other in confusion and shrugged their shoulders. Girls were strange.
The next several hours were spent playing various non-magical card and board games, Hermione and Harry having to teach the others how to play each one. Surprisingly, while he was rubbish at most of the card games, Neville utterly defeated all of them in Monopoly despite never playing such a game before and just learning an hour ago how the money worked. Hermione, who had always been very good at the game, was getting extremely frustrated at losing until she looked at Neville and saw the large smile on his face. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, along with her anger, not being able to stay that way upon seeing how happy winning seemed to make the shy boy.
As it was starting to get dark outside and they were debating which game to play next, Cedric popped his head in and told them all that they would be arriving soon so they should start getting ready and the nervousness that had been pushed into the back of all their minds as they played their games rushed to the forefront and threatened to overwhelm them. Upon seeing this, Cedric stepped into the compartment and told them again that the sorting was nothing difficult or dangerous and that once it was over they would realize how silly they were being.
After Cedric had left, Harry and Neville helped the girls get their trunks down so they could grab their robes, before Harry helped Neville do the same. He was immensely glad that Perenelle had prepared everything for the journey that morning because his robe was folded neatly in his bag and he didn't have to worry about messing about with a heavy trunk.
Once that was done and they were in the process of cleaning up the compartment, the train began to slow down and a voice echoed throughout the train, letting them know to leave their luggage and such before departing.
"You guys ready?" Harry asked them as the train came to a stop and Hedwig hopped onto his shoulder once more. When everybody gave the affirmative, his familiar even bobbing up and down a bit, he led them out of the compartment and onto the platform.
OoOoOoO
After getting over the surprise of seeing the giant that was Rubeus Hagrid, and getting their first look at Hogwarts in all its magnificence, the first years followed Hagrid nervously to the edge of the lake where sat a fleet of small boats waiting for them. There was a brief hiccup in their plan to sail together when Hagrid instructed them that there could be no more than four to a boat, so Harry let Neville keep the girls company while he searched out another.
Just as he was beginning to think he would have to ride by himself, Harry caught sight of 2 girls and a dark skinned boy making their way over to an empty boat and rushed over. "Mind if I join you?"
They all turned to look at him, their eyes flicking to Hedwig for just a moment, before the brunette girl spoke up. "Sure thing, hop in."
Upon seeing the boy extend his hand to help the blonde haired girl into the boat, Harry hurried to do the same for the other before getting in last. "Thanks, my name is Harry Potter and this lovely lady is Hedwig." He said once they were all settled and Hedwig puffed out her chest at his words.
The shock only lasted a few seconds before the brunette giggled. "Hello, I'm Tracey Davis and this is Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini." She introduced them, pointing at each in turn.
Harry nodded at them as the boats began gliding across the lake. "Nice to meet you. You guys excited to start school?"
"Of course, we have only been waiting to come here since we could understand what Hogwarts was." Daphne spoke, a tad icily.
Harry tilted his head to the side and hummed in agreement, choosing to ignore her tone. "I guess that's true. I only had to wait about 2 months after finding out about the wizarding world, I can't imagine having to wait years."
All of their eyes widened at hearing this. "You didn't know about magic until just two months ago?" At his confirming nod, Tracey looked at him in disbelief. "But you're Harry Potter, how could you not know anything about magic?"
"Well I grew up completely in the non-magical world with my relatives. I know more now of course, what with my current guardians making sure to catch me up as best as they could in the limited time. I even got their permission to try out for the house team if their is an open Seeker position wherever I'm sorted." Harry said with a bit of pride in his voice. He had practiced hard this last month once Perenelle had made that announcement at his party and really hoped there would be an empty position for him, though he knew if he was sorted into Hufflepuff then he would probably have to wait a few years considering Cedric had mentioned he would be trying out for that position and he doubted he would be able to do better than the burly third year.
"Not many first years make the house teams." Blaise said, his voice sounded surprisingly pleasant and light despite the disbelief written across his face.
"I know," Harry replied amicably. "Nell told me it might not happen but even if I don't make the team I could at least get my name out there for when I'm older."
Blaise nodded his head in approval. "That's true and a good strategy. Do you know which house you're likely to be sorted into?"
"I'm not completely sure to be honest. I think I could end up in either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff."
Daphne gave him a look of disdain. "What, Slytherin not good enough for you Potter?"
This time Harry couldn't ignore it and directed his gaze to her. "I'm not sure why you seem to dislike me so much considering we just met but if you're going to continue being rude to me, shouldn't I at least get to know why?"
He received a glare in return that lasted for all of 5 seconds before Daphne broke into a small smile, which turned into a giggle in short order, followed closely by Tracey and then Blaise giving a chuckle.
"I think I've missed something." Harry said with much confusion, which only set them off to full blown laughter.
Daphne finally calmed down enough to actually speak properly. "Sorry about that Harry, we three kind of grew up together, since we live so close to each other, and when we were younger made up a sort of prank we like to play on people we just meet."
"You prank people by being mean to them?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Not exactly, it's more giving them the cold shoulder. You met Malfoy right?" She enquired and barely gave him a chance to answer, considering she had already heard all about Malfoy's latest show of Pureblood elitism that had blown up in his face quite spectacularly, before she continued. "Well, we have had to meet tons of people just like him growing up so decided to have a little fun with it while also fleshing out the good and bad ones."
"I'm still not sure I understand."
Blaise decided to take over from there. "Look Harry, we've spent the majority of our lives having to put up with stuck up prats like the Malfoys, who no matter who it is, think themselves superior to everyone they meet. To help break up the monotony and help distinguish future friend from foe we came up with our little prank. Daphne acts as the official antagonist while Tracey and I usually play the neutral party.
"She will dish out scathing comments at random and we gauge how well the person handles them. Malfoy nearly gave himself an aneurism yelling at Daphne when we did it to him but ended up embarrassing himself considering it was in the middle of a party his parents were throwing and his father gave him a very public verbal spanking for it. We pretty much just try to ignore him now a days, along with his two bookends and Pansy Parkinson, who just about split our eardrums with her screeches once Daphne got done with her."
Harry thought this over for a bit before he said slowly. "So, you wind people up to see how they react to it and then base their reactions on whether or not you become friends with them?"
"Pretty much." Tracey spoke up, shrugging her shoulders. "It wasn't anything personal so please don't take it as such and, if it makes you feel better, you passed with flying colors. Not many people would have been so nice in asking Daphne what her problem was."
"That's good I guess. Could you not do the same thing to my friends though? They are all really nice and I'm not sure I would approve of you being mean to them, even if it isn't real."
"Sure thing Harry, we had already decided to tone it down while in Hogwarts anyway and only ended up testing you to see if the Boy-Who-Lived was a pompous git or not." Blaise said cordially.
Harry let out a soft laugh. "Well I'm glad I passed and please just stick with Harry. I really hate that title."
"Fair enough." Daphne said. "So for real this time, how come you don't think you would be sorted into Slytherin?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders and got a flash of displeasure from Hedwig through their bond as he jostled the napping owl. "Sorry Hed." He muttered and she simply settled back down again while he turned his attention back to the others. "Well, I don't really consider myself particularly cunning and, though I do want to do well in school, that's really as far as my ambitions go at the moment. I'm just not sure its the house for me."
"You know, Slytherin and Gryffindor are pretty well known for their house rivalries and all three of us will most likely be sorted into Slytherin. If you are sorted into Gryffindor we might not be able to talk to you, let alone be friends." Blaise informed him.
"But we became friends before we were sorted. Why should it matter if we were in rival houses if we were already friends?"
Tracey gave a snort. "That's not usually how it works Harry but I don't see why we can't try and make it work anyway. You seem nice enough and it would make things less boring if we stirred things up a bit." She said and looked to Daphne and Blaise to get their opinions.
Blaise thought about it for a few seconds before his face broke out into a grin. "Sounds like fun, I'm in."
They then turned to wait for Daphne's response, with Hedwig even waking up to join in the staring, and she didn't disappoint them. "I also accept."
Harry gave them all a big smile as Hedwig decided it was time for her to depart and scrounge up some dinner for herself. Her decision came none too soon as they heard Hagrid's booming voice telling them to duck just a few minutes later. Once they were through the dark tunnel and stopped at the underground harbor, Harry and Blaise helped the girls to exit the boats before they made their way up the steps, through the oak doors, and came to a stop in the large Entrance Hall.
After Professor McGonagall gave her little speech about the houses and left them alone for a bit, Harry wasted no time in dragging Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise over to where he had spotted Neville and the girls so he could introduce everybody. He was immensely glad to see that none of them looked down or reacted in any way to Hermione like Malfoy had done.
All 8 of them were talking quietly to each other when screams from their fellow students pierced the air around them. Everybody was just getting over their shock of seeing the group of ghosts coming through the wall when McGonagall came back out to shoo them away and then had the first years follow her.
To say that the Great Hall was a magnificent sight was an understatement and hearing Hermione immediately begin spouting off everything she knew about the enchanted ceiling was just icing on the cake. It also helped steady Harry's nerves to listen to her as he looked around them at the new faces, all watching them make their way to the front of the Hall with rapt attention, and he even managed a small smile when he passed Cedric.
He faced forward again as the people in front began to stop and saw McGonagall setting an old battered hat on a three legged stool. Though the song the hat began singing soon after it was set down was impressive, Harry was instantly distracted by the sight of Nicolas and Perenelle sitting behind the High Table. They were at the very end on the right and both gave him a smile and a wave once they saw that he had noticed them and he eagerly returned it.
Harry snapped his head back to the hat as McGonagall called up Hannah to be sorted first. When it was merely placed on her head and in short order spouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Harry realized that Cedric had been right on the train, they were being silly to be afraid of being sorted, even if it was still a bit nerve racking to have to wait and see where they would go.
Watching anxiously as Hermione and Neville were sorted into Gryffindor and Tracey and Daphne into Slytherin, Harry was startled to finally hear his own name come out of McGonagall's mouth. The walk up to the stool seemed much farther than it should have been but he made it in due time and perched on its edge, the hat falling over his eyes seconds later.
"Interesting… very interesting." A voice spoke inside his mind. "Plenty of courage I see, not a bad mind either, extremely loyal, and oh… quite eager to gain new friends it seems. Well, you would do very well in most of the houses but unfortunately I must place you in just one. Hmmm… I think it will be HUFFLEPUFF!"
Harry grinned from ear to ear as the hat was taken off of his head and he made his way to the table that was bathed in yellow and black. Clapping and cheers were coming from all four houses, though Slytherin was fairly muted, and he could see Fred and George looking at him in surprise before they broke out into hoots and hollers. A small pang of regret did flash through him when he realized that he wasn't going to be in the same house as Neville but he caught the boys eye and gave him a smile, which was gladly returned.
After sitting down next to Susan and getting a few pats on the back, Harry looked up at the High Table once again. Nicolas and Perenelle were beaming at him and Nicolas gave him a thumbs up to let him know that they were perfectly fine with where he had been sorted. They had already assured him multiple times since telling him about the houses that they would be happy with whichever house he went into but it was nice to have a confirmation of that.
He scanned the rest of the table as Padma Patil went into Ravenclaw and skimmed over all of the faces, most of which he didn't know, before alighting on a hooked nose man with greasy black hair that was sneering at him. He had met Severus Snape when he had come to speak with Nicolas sometime in the middle of August about potions and had been startled to see the man glaring at him before they were even introduced. Perenelle had put a swift stop to that however when she snapped at him and informed him in no uncertain terms that if he didn't stop then he could just turn around and leave without meeting her husband at all but Harry had still been wary of him and made sure to keep away from him while he was at the cottage.
Once Blaise was settled in at the Slytherin table with his two friends and McGonagall had taken the hat and stool away, the feast began to the delight of all of the starving students. Cedric came over at some point to congratulate him on his sorting and the Fat Friar joined them for the second half of the feast to answer any questions they had about the house or school.
Harry had just popped the last bite of his treacle tart into his mouth when all of the dishes and food vanished from the tables and Dumbledore stood up. "Now that we have all been properly fed and watered I would like to go over a few new changes to the school regarding the curriculum and our new Professors. For first year we have added 4 new classes which are Introduction to the Wizarding World, Introduction to Latin, Health and Wellness, and Introduction to Healing and First Aid—"
Susan poked Harry in the side several minutes later when she realized that he had actually dozed off at the beginning of the Headmaster's speech, missing all of the new classes introduced for the upper years as well as the majority of the new professors, and the raven haired boy was so startled when she did so that he nearly fell out of his seat, causing a few of his fellow house mates to clap their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter.
"And last but not least," Dumbledore continued on, oblivious to the mini disruption. "Mr. Nicolas Flamel will be taking over as Potions Professor and will be offering the Alchemy elective to those 6th and 7th years wishing to take it while his wife Perenelle will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor and will also be offering an elective for 6th and 7th years who are interested in Warding."
Excited whispers sprang up from many of the older students at hearing Nicolas' name and only grew as Dumbledore continued. It became so loud by the time he was done that he had to hold up a hand and wait for the whispers to cease before he could tell them to stay out of the Forbidden Forest, that they weren't allowed to do magic in the corridors, and when to expect the Quidditch tryouts to begin.
The walk to where the Hufflepuff dormitories was situated was a sleepy blur for Harry and his housemates, though they did make sure to pay attention to which barrel they needed to tap as well as the specific rhythm they would need to use on said barrel since none of them wanted to be sprayed with vinegar should they get either wrong. The large round common room they stepped into seemed overly comfortable and cozy, which only made the firsties even more sleepy, but they were shepherded through big round doors and up to their dormitories before they could get a good look around.
That Harry would be sharing a room with Justin Finch-Fletchley for the year hardly registered in his mind as he quickly changed into his pajamas and got into bed, falling asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
A/N 2: So, I was actually planning to sort Harry into Gryffindor for the longest time until I actually started writing him and realized that my version is more Hufflepuff with Gryffindor traits rather than the other way around. I also think that it mixes it up a bit more so its not so standard Gryffindor Harry, which is done all the time, and we get to meet a lot more students. Hope you guys like it!
A/N 3: I have a dilemma. I said in the first chapter that I would be posting each year as a separate story but as I got to writing this story, I can't decide if I want to continue with that original plan or make this one full epic length story with a gazillion chapters. Since I can't decide, I thought I would let you guys vote on what you would prefer. So feel free to PM me or leave a review, however you wish to do it, to let me know what you think. Thanks a bunch and thanks for reading.